Colorado Springs — Coach Jae Jeon, recently led students from American Martial Arts Academy-Naperville to the US Open Taekwondo Hanmadang Championships held at the US Olympic Training Center and won 24 medals — 14 Gold, 3 Silver, and 7 Bronze.
Participants competed in several categories based on the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. The word Hanmadang, roughly translated, means “big gathering field.” As such, the Hanmadang’s purpose is to provide an open venue for all Taekwondo students and athletes, from all over the world, to come and compete in the spirit of Taekwondo. Last Friday to Saturday students competed in events such as Individual Forms, Pairs, Creative Forms and Team Competition.
The students’ who won medals are: Rishya Gutti, Yash Bandla, Erick Farrar, Cecilia Farrar, Charlie Scriven-Young, Nick Perna, Bernie Wang, Ben Blowers, Austin Hearnsberger, and Victoria Nazario.
The United States Taekwondo Hanmadang is the United States’ version of the World Taekwondo Hanmadang, one of the most prestigious Taekwondo tournaments with nearly 1,000 competitors.
All Team Traditional Form competition category participants won Gold medals. These winners included the mother and son team of Erick and Cecilia Farrar, the Pair Team of Rishya Gutti and Yash Bandla, and the Boys Group of Nick Perna, Bernie Wang, Austin Hearnsberger and Ben Blowers. The Boys Group received one of the highest scores of the weekend.
Students have been training under Master Jae Hyeon Jeon and Master Alfred Rhee, a 5th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. “It’s not about the medals these children take home, rather I would like for them to take this experience of high level competition and sportsmanship with them,” said Master Jeon.
The Academy was established in the fall of 2009. Master Jeon and his group of competitors have successfully competed against Taekwondo students from all over the world. They also plan to participate in the World Taekwondo Hanmadang in Korea in the next year.
For more information on the Academy visit http://amaa-usa.com/naperville.
